Q3 develops a next generation Content Management and Delivery System.

Q3's global sourcing model gives the maximum benefit to customers in terms of cost savings, improved quality, access to highly talented professionals, flexibility of operations and reduced time to market.

Company Profile

The Client is a video entertainment and online advertising company which provides inventory to the fast growing segment of video commercials. Inventory is provided through an ad-supported network of video entertainment channels – located directly on the consumer desktop.

Business Situation

The Client had a requirement for a Content Management & Delivery System, which would be a next generation product for running the Client’s core business of managing and distributing licensed content to desktop consumers.

The Application had to be built from scratch using a using a distributed architecture that consisted of the product’s Client Services and the product’s Backend Services communicating using SOA/Web Services over the internet.

Technologies

The product’s desktop client as well as backend application was built using a layered architecture consisting of the following:

• UI/Presentation Layer
• Business Layer
• Data Layer

The Backend Management Tool was built as a Desktop as well as Web based application such that the desktop part had more sophisticated and advanced capabilities for video content management while the Web version could be used more for reporting and analytics. The core business layer and the data layers were shared in this case. Q3 built the solution in .Net architecture with the latest associated technologies, which are summarized below:

• .NET Framework 3.5
• .NET Windows Forms
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)/ Web Services (SOAP, XML)
• C# .NET
• ASP .NET
• SilverLight
• AJAX
• SQL Server 2005

A high level Architecture of the Application is shown below.

Technical Solution

The application could be downloaded by a user on their desktop to view content licensed from a content partner. One of the key objectives was to ensure that the user had downloaded each application only once since the application could then “manage” itself by talking to the backend not only for new content and ads but also new options that the administrators chose to provide to users.

Some of the features of the application were as follows:

• An application with a specialized icon could be installed for each channel/content partner.
• Configurable “Skins” that could allow the users to pick the theme of their choice. New themes could be added at the backend.
• Ability to activate user by collecting behavioral information such as sex, date and year of birth, hobbies etc. that could be used to present targeted ads.
• Present the user with a set of viewing channels such as Highlights, Classics etc.
• Ability to play downloaded video content and ads weaved in based on information provided by the backend ad insertion engine. Play/Pause/Rewind/Forward functionality could be provided except when an ad was being played so that the user could not fast forward to skip the ad.
• Content Synchronization with backend could be managed such that the user is alerted when new content arrives and is available to be played.
• Activity monitoring to gather statistics on the user’s viewing patterns such as repetitions, duration of ads watched etc. This data could be periodically sent to the backend, which could allow for powerful analytics and reporting by consolidating data across all users. These reports were critical in providing feedback to advertisers and therefore negotiating higher dollar value “spots” on the products channels.
• Embedded Web Browser that would allow the user unrestricted access to web sites. Various options such as Audio Alerts, Desktop Icon etc. could be presented to the user that would allow them to pick the usability and behavior of their application. Again, these could be upgraded from the backend without requiring an upgrade or new installation of the application.